Pasta Primavera

I realize that this comment is two years old, but I see this sort of thing all the time: a reader changes the recipe entirely and presents it as a comment on the recipe in the NYT. What is the point? If you have a comment on how the recipe worked for you, or a problem with it that you solved, fine. But why offer an entirely different dish as if you are commenting?

There is a shortcut I have cooked many times.The idea is to cook the veggies in the sauce starting with the one that takes the longest.You avoid the steaming steps and keep all the flavors. For example, start with sauteing onions, add broccoli, next add other firm vegetables according to cooking time, asparagus toward the end. Saute mushrooms, add them at the end because they can make the sauce muddy.It requires attention to get the veggies in at the right time but shortens the process.

I think it could be because the veggies have different cooking times. So you could start with the broccoli, add the squash in a min or 2, then the peas for the last min or so.

* steamed instead of boiling the veggies, that left the whole needing more salt

* used angel hair instead of spaghetti, tasted absolutely divine

* Divided into 4 servings, this makes a very large supper, I recommend 6 servings for a hearty meal, no sides needed

* definitely needed the extra cream to bump up the sauce a bit, otherwise it was just a bit too sparse

* super-fresh farmers market veggie are the star of this show

Cooked this yet again, it is my family's all-time favorite. Cooking the green veggies separately so they are just crisp-tender and each flavor is preserved is critical. Re-heating them in a separate pot with the garlic olive oil is not. Takes so long to toss evenly with pasta and sauce that they are plenty warm to serve.

I double or triple the basil and reserve it as garnish instead or in addition to adding it to the pot- both ways are delicious.

The time given of one hour may be possible if you've done all the prep ahead of time. If you haven't, best to allow close to 2 hours for this one, start to finish. Nothing is difficult but there are a slug of ingredients and many have to be cooked individually. This is a great dish but quite time consuming and best of course with the freshest farmers market ingredients.

Just cooked all the vegies and added them to the pasta with a little bit of pasta waterand a splach of white wine to make a broth. Seasoned with red pepper flakes, and salt and papper. No butter or cream or cheese. Very tasty with just the broth. Not rating this since it so different from original recipe.

Not sure if this helps anyone, but listed blanching times for the vegetables other than peas are all 3 minutes--not sure why blanching each one seperately would make any sense at all...peas 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minutes.

Cream is not a carb. Cream is a fat.

When Le Cirque put this together people went nuts over it. It had cream, butter and a lot of salt. Take that out and you just have a pasta primavera. If you want this but want to ax the butter, cheese and cream try a puree of cauliflower ( lightly steamed ) in unflavored almond milk and add a bit of nutritional yeast (adds a cheesy flavor). Reduce it until cream thickens and add it as the recipe asks. It's vegetarian fare and if pasta without egg is used it's near vegan.

I beg to differ Sirio Maccioni is from Tuscany where crema or panna is used in many dishes. Northern Italy tends to use more butter and cream and the farther south you go olive is is more frequently used.

Omitting the cream will greatly reduce the calories, but it will certainly not reduce the carbs. Most of the carbs are in the spaghetti. Omit the spaghetti and it's a rich paleo vegetable dish. But, even if you have cut back on carbs, why not just enjoy the pasta as a rare treat? This recipe is such a pain to make that I can't imagine making it more than once a year. But it's delicious, and it definitely takes me back.

I get your point, but you see this is what cooking is—tinkering, editing, and passing on the results. And all of these cooks loved this recipe! Mostly I think it is an idea, not a rule book. A lot of these comments included the “I did _____ and my family loved it!” So whether they parboiled the peas or dyed them purple, the cooks here served them with huge helpings of creativity and love. And stop fussing about a Tbs or two of cream! Really!

Well, I googled broccoli and got this among many responses:

Broccoli is a cool-season crop that, like spinach, can be grown in the spring or fall. In fact, you may be able to get a continual harvest throughout both seasons if you time planting correctly. A member of the cabbage family, broccoli is rich in vitamins.

so perhaps it is a spring veggie after all.

Eat less!!